Poems and Songs of Robert Burns

Chapter 300: The Braes O’ Killiecrankie

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About This Book

The collection assembles lyrical songs, narrative poems, satirical pieces, epistles, epitaphs, and fragments that shift between convivial drinking verses, tender laments, and comic storytelling. Many lyrics were shaped to traditional airs and preserve vernacular speech, while longer works portray rural labor, domestic scenes, and compassionate encounters with animals. Satire targets religious hypocrisy and social pretension, and several poems take a direct, personal tone of moral reflection or affectionate address. The selections alternate moods and forms, emphasizing melodic phrasing and a versatile technical range.

The Braes O’ Killiecrankie

Where hae ye been sae braw, lad? Whare hae ye been sae brankie, O? Whare hae ye been sae braw, lad? Cam ye by Killiecrankie, O? Chorus.—An ye had been whare I hae been, Ye wad na been sae cantie, O; An ye had seen what I hae seen, I’ the Braes o’ Killiecrankie, O. I faught at land, I faught at sea, At hame I faught my Auntie, O; But I met the devil an’ Dundee, On the Braes o’ Killiecrankie, O. An ye had been, &c. The bauld Pitcur fell in a furr, An’ Clavers gat a clankie, O; Or I had fed an Athole gled, On the Braes o’ Killiecrankie, O. An ye had been, &c.